


In which the town manages an evacuation

by zephsomething



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Natural Disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 14:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5052238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Branching off from the Sacrifice the town ending, just a little bit</p>
            </blockquote>





	In which the town manages an evacuation

Max held onto Chloe as the two halves of the photograph got caught in the wind and flew away from her. She watched them until she couldn’t see the slightest speck of blue and then kept watching. She knew without looking that Chloe was watching the town. The storm picking up buildings and turning them over like children’s toys. That wasn’t something she needed to watch, she’d been down there. It was still clear in her mind. The rain and the screams, bodies of those who’d been hit before they even had a chance to run. Most clear though were things she didn’t remember noticing in her rush to the dinner. A doll, well cared for, left in a puddle. A scattering of drawings blown out of a vehicle and caught in puddles and against buildings. Little things discarded in the rush out of town.

“It’ll be okay, they’ve got to be evacuating by now.” Chloe murmured and Max wasn’t certain of who she was trying to convince. She nodded anyway leaning against Chloe as they watched the storm do it’s work. Eventually it seemed to wear itself out. At which point Max’s phone went off half a dozen times in her pocket; messages that had been stopped by the storm. She pulled her phone out and looked down at it. She had no idea how much in the end she’d managed to change or who might be left to text her.

The first message was the newest, from Kate. [The storm didn’t reach the hospital, we’re okay. Where are you?]

The next was from David. [We found the bunker, it came it pretty handy after all.]

Warren had left a dozen which Max just skimmed, the gist was that he and Joyce had gotten everyone out of the three whales safely thanks in large part to David.

Most surprisingly, though at this point she wasn’t sure what counted as surprising anymore, was the message from Victoria. [Everyone from school seems pretty convinced that we should send you a thank you even though I have no idea how you could be involved in us getting locked in a bunker but all their phone’s are gone or dead so I get to send it.]

The texts on her phone prior to that were all scared pleas for help from various friends and other’s at school, along with the blinking voice mail that Max was certain she’d already heard in another time line.

Max sent a message to David saying that the storm was over.

“Chloe,” Max breathed out looking up at Chloe from her phone to see Chloe staring at her. She looked almost wary. “Chloe most of them are fine, David got them out.”

A smile broke over Chloe’s face and it was like looking at the sunrise. Max latched onto her and Chloe wrapped her arms around her. After the two of them calmed down they all but raced down the slope back to town. By the time they got back to town they were both covered in scrapes from falls but neither of them were badly hurt. As it turned out running down a muddy slope wasn’t the best of ideas. There were other vehicles pulling in as they walked through town. Despite the knowledge that most people she knew were okay the damage the town had taken still made Max catch her breath and reach for Chloe’s hand. The town was a mess, most houses were gone or torn apart, the only ones that were still standing were those like the diner that were more metal than anything else. Though most of those still were little but metal shells. There were still bodies in the street but fewer than Max remembered. Most of those who were back already were looking at each other; unsure of what to do now.

In the end it was David who took charge once he got back, along with the bulk of the town, and the Blackwell students. Those bodies that were there were gathered and laid in town square so they could be claimed by their families. The Blackwell students were set to clearing as much of the debris as they could. The larger debris was left for now. Max and Chloe, largely due to the fact that Chloe’s was one of the only vehicles that hadn’t been destroyed in the storm, were sent to the hospital with the few who were to wounded to help with the clean up. They brought back supplies for those who just needed to be patched up.

In the next few weeks the dinner became a sort of home base for most of the town. With exception of course being Blackwell which had remained in almost perfect condition the dinner was the only building in town that had all of it’s sides still. Blackwell however was to far from the town center to be where most people stayed, though the students did go back to the building most evenings. The dinner’s kitchen had miraculously remained in almost working condition so it was the first thing that got fixed. Joyce kept everyone as well fed as she could with what money the townsfolk could scrounge together for supplies.

The Prescott's came only once, to find their son’s body. That part had remained unchanged. Max took them aside to let them listen to Nathan’s last words, which she agreed to send them and delete all other copies in exchange for help. With the Prescott’s money flowing in the town was rebuilt in what Max thought was record time. With little to no cost to anyone who lived there. The only problem that came out of that was within a month or two there was very little to do to take Max’s mind off of everything. Re-construction of the town was still underway but the cleanup was done and everyone hurt in the storm was healed and found places to stay.

Within a week of no longer being busy all day the nightmare returned. The one Max had lived through during the storm. She woke in her with her lip bleeding and holding back a scream. Classes were going to be restarted soon so she’d gone back to the dorms. Problem being there was no longer someone there for her to curl against. So she called her instead.

“Mhmmm Max?” Chloe answered the phone with a mumble.

“I just, well,” Max wasn’t sure how to explain why exactly she’d disturbed Chloe’s sleep at four in the morning.

“Dreams?” Chloe asked apparently getting more coherent by the second.

Max nodded before remembering Chloe couldn’t actually see her. “Nightmares more like.”

“Gimmie like ten minute.” Chloe yawned over the phone and Max smiled slightly.

“It’s a twenty minute drive at least.”

“There’s no one else on the road.” Max could almost see the shrug and she leaned against the wall with her blanket wrapped around her. Chloe spoke again before Max could argue. “Got to Go Max , I’m driving now.”

“Drive safe, I like you in one piece.”

“Of course.” Max didn’t believe her for a second but the line clicked off after that so at least Chloe was paying attention to the road.

Max watched the clock until there was a knock on the door and Chloe stepped into the room.

“That was fifteen minutes.”

“You told me to drive safe.” Chloe shrugged sitting on the bed next to her. Max leaned into her with a small noise of agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is the last alternate ending that was floating around in my head, though not the last LiS fic


End file.
